Thursday, April 24, 2008

Assorted WARPness

...more from our trusty Nottingham correspondent. Thanks Chris!

I ran these through some audio processes to get the levels up, but besides that they sound pretty solid!

One of the first record of the bleeps genre was “The Theme” by Bradford’s Unique 3 in 1989. LFO’s “LFO” was released on Sheffield’s Warp Records in 1990. Nightmares on Wax next released “Dextrous” on Warp Records in 1990. The label went on to release the club anthem “Testone” by Sweet Exorcist (DJ Parrot, and Richard H. Kirk of Sheffield avant-garde experimentalists Cabaret Voltaire), a track that went on to define the Yorkshire sound, and also the rather silly “Tricky Disco” by Tricky Disco. These were followed by a string of releases on the short-lived Leeds label Bassic Records, including the “Ital’s Anthem” by Ital Rockers, a Chapeltown dub reggae band diversifying into techno, and Juno’s “Soul Thunder”, an understated track now recognised as a techno classic.

The music scene in England changed, as piano house anthems took over northern clubs and the breakbeat hardcore scene grew in London and the West Midlands.

Bassic Records folded in 1991, taking most of their acts with them. Those who survived changed styles, with Ital Rockers going back to dub reggae and LFO shifting to techno.

LOL @ doing damage... from the gutterbreakz blog: "All the Warp records at that time were cut at Virgin's Townhouse. I insisted on that. There was a guy there, Kevin Metcalfe, who cut the whole of the Greensleeves catalogue."